Azerbaijan detains anti-U.S. plot suspects

BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan detained two Azeri citizens suspected of preparing an armed attack near the U.S. embassy last month, the security ministry said on Saturday.

Azeri security forces have already detained two groups of Islamist militants, including an alleged al Qaeda fighter, in connection with the foiled plot, which prompted the brief closure of the U.S. and British embassies in Baku.

"As a result of a special operation on November 9, the state security and the defence ministries detained Kyamran Asadov and Farid Dzhabbarov, suspected of planning attacks near the U.S. embassy in Baku on October 29," the ministry said in a statement.

It said Asadov, a former Azeri army officer, had deserted from a military unit with stolen grenades, automatic rifles and other ammunition to prepare the attack.

Azeri state TV channels showed the detained men confessing to the plot which they said was an attempt to take revenge on the United States.

"Our aim was to kill U.S. citizens because they kill Muslims," a TV broadcast showed Asadov as saying.

Azerbaijan is an oil-producing, mainly Muslim republic of 8 million people on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, wedged between Iran, Turkey and Russia.

In recent years, authorities in the former Soviet state have arrested dozens of people suspected of links to Islamist militants, but the country has no history of militant violence.

(Reporting by Lada Yevgrashina; Writing by Tanya Mosolova; Editing by Giles Elgood)